CTHUVIAN FOR BEGINNERS!

"ELDER LINGISTICS MADE EASY!"

by CYBERANGEL
"LEARN TO SPEAK THE LOWER FORM OF THE
R'LYEHIAN LANGUAGE!"
INCLUDING THE COMPLETE CTHUVIAN / ENGLISH
DICTIONARY! (NOTE: CTHUVIAN = R'LYEHIAN)
Let me propose a different paradigm: magic works the way you believe it works.
It's not so much the language you use as the result you expect. Since there are so
many forms and protocols for spells in the Mythos, the real key must be
something deeper than all of them. Sure, mortals need rituals and components to
focus their will, and sometimes it fails anyway. To the Great Old Ones, with their
godlike
brains,
it's
second
nature."
--Cyberangel
"Dude, you're suppose to use your Xaf machine. As we all know, "xaf" is Cthuvian
for "roll up, notarize, consecrate, and jam up your *nus.""
--Cyberangel

CTHUVIAN / ENGLISH DICTIONARY

The works of horror writer H.P. Lovecraft and his proteges,
collectively known as the "Cthulhu Mythos," often contain fragments
of an alien language. HPL himself never gave this language a name,
but fan consensus has settled on "Cthuvian."
HPL also provided translations of several fragments. Intrigued, I set
out to learn more about Cthuvian, woefully unprepared for the sanityblasting ordeal I faced. Fortune smiled, however, and the small
lexicon below is the fruit of my efforts.

For more information about the Mythos, please visit the newsgroup
alt.horror.cthulhu, or search for "Cthulhu Mythos" on the Web. You'll
find more and better information than I can provide here.
A Note about Grammar:
Unlike Earthly languages, Cthuvian makes no distinction between
nouns, verbs, adjectives, and other parts of speech. Pronouns may or
may not appear. Verbs have only two tenses: present and not-present,
since Cthuvians experience time in a non-linear fashion. Taken out of
context, any fragment's translation is nothing more than guesswork.
Cthuvian Word / Root English
-agl
(suffix)
place
ah
generic
action,
e.g.
greet,
eat,
do
'ai
speak
/
call
athg
sign
(contract)
/
agree
to
'bthnk
body
/
essence
bug
go
c(prefix)
we
/
our
ch'
cross
over
/
travel
chtenff
brotherhood
/
society
ebumna
pit
ee
answers
ehye
cohesion
/
integrity
ep
after;
with
hai,
later
/
then
f'(prefix)
they
/
their
'fhalma
mother
fhtagn
wait
/
sleep
fm'latgh
burn
ftaghu
skin
/
boundary
geb
here
gnaiih
father
gof'nn
children
goka
grant
gotha
wish
grah'n
lost
one
/
larva
h'(prefix)
it
/
its
hafh'drn
priest
/
summoner
hai
now

hlirgh
heretic
hrii
followers
hupadgh
born
of
ilyaa
expect
/
await
k'yarnak
share
/
exchange
kadishtu
understand
/
know
kn'a
question
li'hee
on
pain
of
llll
at
/
beside
lloig
mind
/
psyche
lw'nafh
dream
/
transmit
mg
(conjunction)
yet
mnahn'
worthless
n'gha
death
n'ghft
darkness
na(prefix)
(contraction
of
nafl-)
nafl(prefix)
not
/
(not-present
tense)
ng(prefix)
(conjunction)
and
/
then
nglui
threshold
nilgh'ri
anything
/
everything
nnn(prefix)
watch
/
protect
nog
come
nw
head
/
place
-nyth
(suffix)
servant
of
-og
(suffix)
(emphatic)
ooboshu
visit
-or
(suffix)
force
from
/
aspect
of
orr'e
soul
/
spirit
-oth
(suffix)
native
of
ph'(prefix)
over
/
beyond
phlegeth
realm
of
information
r'luh
secret
/
hidden
ron
religion
/
cult
s'uhn
pact
sgn'wahl
share
space
shagg
realm
of
dreams
shogg
realm
of
darkness
shtunggli
notify
/
contact
shugg
realm
of
Earth
sll'ha
invite

stell'bsna
ask
/
pray
for
syha'h
eternity
tharanak
promise
/
bring
throd
tremble
uaaah
(finish
spell)
uh'e
people
/
crowd
uln
call
/
summon
vulgtlagln
pray
to
vulgtm
prayer
wgah'n
reside
in
/
control
y'hah
amen
y(prefix)
I
/
my
ya
I
-yar
(suffix)
time
of
/
moment
zhro (lift spell)
An example: The best-known Cthuvian fragment comes from HPL's
story, "The Call of Cthulhu:" "ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh
wgah'nagl fhtagn." HPL translates this as, "In his house at R'lyeh
dead Cthulhu lies dreaming."
Using this dictionary, however, a more literal translation is, "Dead,
yet dreaming, Cthulhu waits in his palace in R'lyeh."
Bloch's Cthuvian Fragments
Today's offering is a pair of fragments from Bloch's "The Unspeakable
Betrothal," and some intriguing implications of these. Both start in
English and finish in Cthuvian. You'd think, with an English lead-in,
such fragments would be easier to translate, but noooo. "They would
carry her ulnagr Yuggoth Farnomi ilyaa..."
We already know Yuggoth is the planet Pluto. "Ulnagr" might be a
preposition, except that Cthuvian doesn't seem to have any freestanding prepositions - they're mostly implied. Suppose, then, that
"agr" sounds a lot like "agl," a suffix which denotes a location. The girl
is being summoned, so "uln" is a verb for "call" or "summon."
"Farnomi" might be a location, or an entity, or a group of entities, on

Yuggoth. Assuming it's the entity to whom the girl will be taken, we
can guess that "ilyaa" means "expecting" or "awaiting."
So this phrase might be translated: "they would carry her [from] the
summoning place [to] Yuggoth [where] Farnomi awaits [her]."
And the other fragment: "Only perception is limited ch'yar ul'nyar
shaggornyth."
Here's "uln" again (sort of), but now it's not a place but a time. That
means "ch'" is also a verb, and the other action involved is travelling
to Yuggoth, so "ch'" means "travel."
"Shaggor" sounds like a cross between "lloigor" and "shoggoth," so
let's run with this. "Shagg" is different from "shogg." The girl is
attacked through her dreams, so let's say "shagg" refers to the
Dreamlands. A "shaggor" is not an inhabitant of the Dreamlands (that
would be "shaggoth") so it's more like an aspect of some force, or a
manifestation. Finally the suffix "nyth" could mean "servitor of." So a
"shaggornyth" is a servant of a dream force--I nominate the
Nightgaunts.
And the translation: "only perception is limited [at] the moment of
departure, [at] the moment of summoning, [the] Nightgaunt...
[incomplete]."
We've already defined "shoggoth" as "inhabitant of the Pit." The suffix
"oth" indicates a native of some place or realm. We can extend this to
Azathoth, and define "Azath" as the realm of nuclear chaos. At the
moment, though, I can't define "Yog-Soth."
The suffix "or" tells us that "lloig" means mind or psyche, since the
lloigor are mental constructs.
These names give us some insight into the cosmology of the Great Old
Ones. There are separate words for the world below (shogg), the
world of dreams (shagg), and the world of the mind (lloig), and no
doubt others will appear. They can operate in any of these worlds at
will. Even though their physical bodies are imprisoned, they can

influence their servants (and psychically sensitive people) through

mental sendings and dreams.
New Cthuvian Thread
Usenet, or my news server, has an interesting "feature." When I tried
to start a new thread called "Cthuvian 102," the new message
appeared in the old "Cthuvian 101" thread. Same for "Cthuvian 201."
Anyway, here at the Cthuvian Language Labs, we're committed to
deciphering the language of the Great Old Ones. Please watch your
step.
To review, here are the words we have tentatively defined:
-agl (suffix): binds a verb's action to a specific location
ah
(verb):
generic
action,
as
English
"do"
'bthnk
(noun):
body
or
essence
fhtagn
(verb):
sleep/wait
gnaiih
(noun):
father
gof'n
(noun):
child/spawn
llllll-n
(preposition):
at/beside
nafl (prefix): indicates an action not now occurring, but has and will
occur
nglui
(noun):
threshold
ng(conjunction):
and
then
ph'
(preposition):
beyond/over
wgah'n
(verb):
occupy/control
y- (prefix): my
A minor note:
Plurals in Cthuvian are usually formed by repeating the final letter.
Hence, "gof'n" means "child," while "gof'nn" means "children." It
makes a twisted kind of sense... so it's probably wrong.
To get caught up, we need a new definition of "mglw'nafh" to decipher
the famous phrase in "The Call of Cthulhu." We propose keeping the
original assumption that "mg" is a prefix denoting a juxtaposition of
opposites, like "sino" in Spanish. Suppose we call "lw'nafh" a verb

meaning "lives" or "acts." The revised translation is then: "Dead

(beyond the threshold) yet alive (working), Cthulhu [in Its] palace at
R'lyeh sleeps/waits/dreams."
We are now ready to tackle a phrase from Derleth's "The Return of
Hastur:" "I Hastur cf'ayak'vulgtmm, vugtlagln vulgtmm."
In this case, we need to guess at the meaning of this phrase before
tackling individual words. Suppose it means something like this:
"Hosanna, Hastur, we offer up our prayers to thee, we beseech thee
with prayer."
"I" doesn't really require translation, but it seems to have the same
function as "Hosanna" (Aramaic for "glory," right?).
We've already seen a pronoun represented as a prefix ("Y," see
above), so we'll say that the prefix "C" denotes the first person plural,
i.e. "we" or "our." For reasons which will shortly become apparent,
this prefix softens a following consonant, so the root verb is "fhayak,"
meaning "send" or "offer up" or "place before."
"Vulgtm" thus means "prayer" (plural here, denoted by the second
M). We've guessed that "vugtlagln" means "beseech" or "respond to."
So, a more literal translation is: "Glory [to] Hastur! [We] send prayers
[to thee], answer [our] prayers."
The final fragment from "The Return of Hastur" is "Hastur cf'tagn."
Here again we see the prefix "C," which reverses the normal sense of
this verb: "Hastur, we wait [for thee], we dream [of thee]."
We can now turn to other fragments with some confidence. From
Price's "Beneath the Tombstone," we have: "mglw'nafh fhthagn-ngah
cf'ayak 'vulgtmm vugtlag'n." We can handily translate it as, "...yet
living, [It] sleeps/waits and then acts, we send [our] prayers [to thee],
answer [us]!"
Or this, from Carter's "Dead of Night:" "ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthugha
Fomalhaut n'gha-ghaa naf'lthagn."

Glossing over some typos, we have, "Gone but not forgotten, Cthugha
sleeps/waits at Fomalhaut, [promising] death to one and all."
Comments, as always, are welcome.
Cthuvian 101
Recently someone wondered if we could define the language of the
Great Old Ones. I'm willing to take a stab at it.
I. NATURE OF THE LANGUAGE
To begin with, here are some relevant quotes from HPL himself, from
"The Call of Cthulhu:" "...from some undetermined point below had
come a voice that was not a voice; a chaotic sensation which only
fancy could transmute into sound, but which he attempted to render
by the almost unpronounceable jumble of letters, *Cthulhu fhtagn.*"
"... a subterrene voice or intelligence shouting monotonously in
enigmatical sense-impacts uninscribable save as gibberish...."
"... [The Great Old Ones'] mode of speech was transmitted thought."
And from "The Dunwich Horror:" "It is almost erroneous to call them
*sounds* at all, since so much of their ghastly, infra-bass timbre
spoke to dim seats of consciousness and terror far subtler than the
ear; yet one must do so, since their form was indisputably though
vaguely that of half-articulate *words.*"
From the Old Gentleman's own pen, then, we know that written
Cthuvian is only a rough approximation of the spoken form; that this
is part of a telepathic message, which can include images, sensations,
emotions, impressions, or anything else the human brain can process;
and this may represent only a fraction of what a Great Old One can
comprehend.
To a lesser extent, the same abstraction occurs in any written
language. Written English loses the nuances of emphasis, tone, and

context. We can reconstruct much of the spoken form because we

generate speech ourselves every day, but with Cthuvian this gets
problematic.
II. THE "OFFICIAL" FRAGMENTS
We have to start somewhere--as Lewis said to Clark--so we'll go to the
source. We get a single phrase in "The Call of Cthulhu:" "ph'nglui
mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn."
HPL even provides a translation: "In his house at R'lyeh dead Cthulhu
waits dreaming." Obviously "Cthulhu" and "R'lyeh" correspond. We
also know that "fhtagn" means "waits." That leaves three words which
should correspond to "house," "dead," and "dreaming."
Applying Occam's Razor to keep things simple, let's assign the words
nearest to what they modify. "Wgah'nagl" follows "R'lyeh," so it
means "(Its) home." "Ph'nglui" and "mglw'nafh" precede "Cthulhu,"
so they mean "dead" and "dreaming."
Thus a more literal translation of this phrase is: "Dead, yet dreaming,
Cthulhu waits in his palace in R'lyeh."
We have two more fragments from "The Dunwich Horror." Wilbur's
brother (Orville? [sorry]) utters these words: "ygnaiih ... ygnaiih ...
thflthkh'ngha ... Yog-Sothoth ... y'bthnk .. h'ehye-n'grkdl'lh."
Considering his next and final words ("HELP! FATHER!"), we might
assume that "ygnaiih" means "father," possibly "my father." By the
same reasoning, "thflthkh'ngha" might be a cry for help. Yog-Sothoth,
of course, is his father's name.
If we assume that an initial Y denotes possession, as with "ygnaiih,"
we could guess that "y'bthnk" means "my body" or "my spirit," since
'Orville' is in the middle of an exorcism; then "h'ehye-n'grkdl'lh"
might mean "begins to fade away."
Thus we can translate Whateley's cry for help: "Father, father, help

me! Yog-Sothoth, my body! It's fading away!"

Finally, we have Wilbur Whateley's last words: "n'gai, n'gha'ghaa,
bugg-shoggog, y'hah, Yog-Sothoth."
Given the circumstances, we might call this a curse instead of a
supplication. The root "shogg" helps, since we can guess that
"shoggoth" means "Creature from the Pit (Underworld)." Perhaps
these words mean: "Death, death to you all, go to Hell! Amen, by YogSothoth!"
HERE ENDETH THE FIRST LESSON
Other phrases we'll look at in Cthuvian 102:
"The Return of Hastur" (Derleth): "Cthulhu naflfhtagn."
"The Moon-Lens" (Campbell): "gof'nn hupadgh Shub-Niggurath."
"Concerning the Forthcoming ... Translation of the Necronomicon .."
(Brunner): "llllll-nglui, nnnn-lagl, fhtagn-ngah, ai Yog-Sothoth!" and
many more.
Not that I need to ask, but any comments, amplifications, complaints,
or remarks would be welcome. I see this project as a group effort.
Cthuvian 201
Someone mentioned an essay entitled "R'lyehian as a Toy Language."
Unfortunately I don't have access to it. Besides, it might be
interesting to compare two independent analyses.
This time, let's look at some shorter phrases from HPL's original
disciples. As noted last time, Derleth wrote, "Cthulhu naflfhtagn" (in
"The Return of Hastur"), noting that this means "Cthulhu no longer
waits." I submit that the prefix "nafl" is more than a negative.
The Great Old Ones experience time in cycles, e.g. the stars are right,

wrong, then right again. An event in the past is also in the future;
therefore verbs have only two tenses, present and past/future (or,
present and not-present). The prefix "nafl" indicates that something
has happened and will happen, but is not happening now.
We can expand on "fhtagn" a bit more as well. When a cultist
proclaims, "Cthulhu fhtagn," it is more than a statement of fact, it is
an expression of faith. "Cthulhu is waiting" has the same air of
imminence as "Jesus is coming." Most of the Cthuvian fragments we
have come from rituals, which are full of these formulaic
pronouncements. So "Cthulhu naflfhtagn" can mean "Cthulhu has
come."
Another interesting fragment comes from "Concerning the
Forthcoming
Inexpensive
Paperback
Translation
of
the
Necronomicon of Abdul Alhazred," by John Brunner: "llllll-nglui,
nnnn-lagl, fhtagn-ngah, ai Yog-Sothoth!"
The translation provided is, "Yog-Sothoth is the Lurker at the
Threshold." We also see some parallels with the fragment from "The
Call of Cthulhu," giving us some clues.
First, "nglui." We have established that "ph'nglui" means "dead." If
we equate "llllll-nglui" with "at the Threshold," we can guess that
"nglui" means "threshold," so that in both cases it has prefixes acting
as prepositions: "llllll-" means "at," and "ph'-" means "beyond." Note
that "ph'nglui" is only a metaphor for what we know as death Cthuvians don't die, they shift into other realities "across the border"
or "beyond the threshold." (Note also that Cthuvian has no articles.)
Second, "agl." We know that "wgah'nagl" means "house (of)."
Suppose that "nnnn-lagl" matches "Lurker." We now have a suffix,
"agl," meaning "place;" that is, it modifies a verb to indicate that that
action occurs in a specific place. "Wgah'n" then means "live" or
"reside," and "nnnn-l" means "watch" or "protect."
Third, "fhtagn-ngah." The string "ngah" amplifies "fhtagn" somehow,
in keeping with Yog-Sothoth's role as Lurker. I'd like to put off a
derivation of "ng" for a later time, but propose it as a conjunction

linking two actions which normally occur in sequence - an English

equivalent is "and then." The other component, "ah," should then
follow the "fhtagn" (wait) action. As a guardian, Yog-Sothoth has a
variety of options for dealing with those crossing the Threshold, so
"ah" might cover a variety of actions, with a visual component for
specific cases (remember, this is only the written form of a telepathic
language). On the other hand, "ah" may stand for a generic action, as
"do" does.
Last, "ai." Lacking any solid clues, this might be a sort of conjunction,
linking several characteristics with one subject. We can now translate
the phrase more literally:
"At [the] threshold, [It] watches, [It] waits and greets us, It is YogSothoth!"
Our third fragment is from Campbell's "The Moon-Lens:" "gof'nn
hupadgh Shub-Niggurath," translated as "the young of the Black
Goat." Going by word order, we can equate "gof'nn" with "young" or
"children," and "hupadgh" with "belonging to" or "borne by."
A general note about spelling: going over the fragments I've
unearthed, there are some inconsistencies in spelling - no surprise in
a non-Romance language. How do you spell Khadafi?
A note on pronunciation: someone remarked on the correspondence
between Hs in Cthuvian and Gaelic. In Gaelic, when the letter H
follows a consonant, it indicates a softening of the consonant, not a
blending of both letters. For instance, the Gaelic BH sounds like the
English V, which is not in the Gaelic alphabet. In English, TH doesn't
sound like T or H, but something different from both.
I propose, therefore, that when the Cthuvian H follows a consonant, it
denotes a guttural. PH does not sound like F, rather, it's a P
pronounced deep in the throat, almost like choking.
As before, comments are welcome, even encouraged.
Cthuvian 201: Cosmology

Next topic: the nature of reality. We're not afraid to tackle the big
questions here at AHC!
At the risk of oversimplifying horribly, let's go with two variables. Do
we have one universe or several? Do we have one set of physical laws
or several?
In the simplest case, we live in a single universe with a single set of
laws. Problem is, we don't quite understand those laws. The Great Old
Ones do. There are unseen forces, quantum strings, hypergeometries, folded dimensions--call them what you will--which They
perceive and manipulate, but we don't. They live in far-off corners of
the cosmos, but as the stars allow They can curve space and visit us.
Suppose that the laws of physics change from time to time; not the
laws we understand, which seem to remain constant everywhere, but
the laws governing hyper-reality. In certain regions at certain times,
They can impose Their will, but then the stars change and their
abilities change as well.
Now assume we have multiple universes, but still one set of laws. If
these realms overlay one another, it would explain a lot of
strangeness: angles that seem to curve into nothingness, portals to
exotic worlds, beings seen only in trances. Moving between these
realms becomes a matter of attunement instead of actual travel.
Finally we could have multiple universes, each with a different set of
laws. Each GOO has Its own home realm, where conditions suit Its
powers best; in other realms Its power wanes depending on the
divergence of laws there from Its own.
And of course, there's None Of The Above. Whatever twists and turns
you put into your story or campaign, you contribute to the delicious
chaos we call the Cthulhu Mythos.
Cthuvian 201: Definition
Okay, campers, time to start on Phase II of the Cthuvian Language

Project. When it's completed and every human has learned Our
Master's tongue, the Aeon of Its Ascendancy can begin. Ia!
First of all we need to answer the question, "What is a Great Old
One?" Like all the rest of our topics, I'm not going to try to present a
definitive answer; most will be multiple choice or one-from-ColumnA. I'm also going to confine the discussion to Cthulhu, expecting that
most points will apply to the other GOOs as well.
Answer A: Cthulhu is a god. Primitive people personify natural forces
- like sun, wind, and lightning - and worship them. Before the Elder
Gods banished It, Cthulhu also was worshipped for Its power. Able to
communicate telepathically with Its followers, It has maintained that
cult to prepare for Its return, when It will re-establish Its temple at
R'lyeh.
Answer B: Cthulhu is an awesomely powerful being from another
realm. Once It ruled Earth, but the Elder Gods closed the gate
between Its realm and ours. While Cthulhu dreams in Its prison, Its
followers work to re-open the gate at R'lyeh.
Answer C: Cthulhu is a space alien. Trapped on Earth by gravity,
weakness, or lack of transportation, It went into hibernation.
Entombed in the sunken city of R'lyeh, It waits for a race to arise that
can help "IT phone home."
Answer D: Cthulhu is a monstrous cell. Like some other Mythos
creatures, it appears to be unicellular. We can only speculate about
the significance (if any) of this correspondence. Did all these
organisms once belong to some great creature, disassembled by the
Elder Gods? Do they work together as disparate parts of an unseen
and unknowable whole? Do they function as cosmic white blood cells,
battling "infections" like mankind, or are they the disease?
Answer E: Cthulhu is a force of nature. Unlike early anthropomorphic
gods, It rules over quantum particles. The random nature of
subatomic activity arises from the constant struggle among such
forces. They did not become apparent to us until we began to
understand the true nature of reality.

Answer F: none of the above. What's your theory?

Cthuvian 201: Motivation
Boilerplate: This post is part of an ongoing project to define a possible
meaning for an imaginary language. Known variously as Cthuvian
and R'lyehian, this language appears in fragments throughout the
Cthulhu Mythos. There is no intention to supplant, disprove, or
ridicule any part of the Mythos, or any writer or reader associated
with it. Comments are not only expected, but they are also
encouraged. Cthuvian Language Labs is a division of the Institute for
Mythos Studies and should not be confused with those cheap ripoff
artists at Cthonian Translation Labs.
Here in Phase Two, we are trying to outline the culture of the Great
Old Ones, with the expectation that this will give us a foundation for
understanding the bases of their language.
We can't ascribe human aspirations to such alien beings, but we can
draw parallels with the human condition. The first--some would say
only--motivation for humans is self-preservation. Other drives feed
from this: preservation of one's self leads to a drive for power;
preservation of one's genes to a drive for sex; preservation of one's
surviving group to a drive for revenge; and preservation of one's
culture to a drive for knowledge.
Turning to a Great Old One like Cthulhu, we know that It cannot be
killed, only banished. That seems to rule out self-preservation, which
It takes for granted.
Since we can't take anything for granted, however, let's suppose for a
moment that It *can* be killed and the Elder Gods only imprisoned It
out of some ethical concern. Its current prison not only prevents It
from threatening other beings, but also prevents others from
threatening It. Although It regards self-preservation as Its ultimate
priority, Its situation allows It to concentrate on other matters. It
does not view humans as a threat and so we do not receive Its full
attention; instead It routinely works through intermediaries.

If Cthulhu does share human priorities, we can guess at Its other

drives as well. It seeks power in the form of worshippers. It has
offspring. It no doubt has designs on the Elder Gods once It regains
Its freedom. It communicates with Its followers to send--and
receive--news.
Now let's look at the original possibility, that Cthulhu has everlasting
life. In this case It need not fear a cessation of existence. However, It
can experience diminutions of Its power, which left unchecked would
result in impotence, a fate worse than death. It must contend with the
other Great Old Ones for a cosmically large, but still finite, pool of
influence. Call it a grand game, a power struggle, or a pitched battle,
They all must take part or risk losing everything.
But this only shifts the question. Instead of asking why It does what It
does, we must ask about the rules of Its game. What things have
value? How does It gain possession or control of those things? Can It
hope to win, or only to avoid losing? We could speculate wildly about
all of this, and much more, but for this discussion let's leave it at that.
Now let's forget all those suppositions. The Mythos tells us again and
again that the Great Old Ones are inexpressably alien, that mere
contact with them leads to insanity. Does that make Them insane? To
answer that, we must have a provisional definition of 'sanity' or
'insanity.'
Let's take insanity first, and call it a misalignment between reality and
one's local perception of reality. We looked at the nature of reality in a
previous thread ("Cosmology"), ignoring metaphysical and
philosophical arguments against an objective universe, and we'll
continue to cheerfully ignore them.
Consider paranoia, a feeling that someone or something means you
harm. If you believe that the FBI is tapping your phones, following
you, setting traps for you, talking to friends and co-workers without
your knowledge, and otherwise collecting information about you, a
psychiatrist might consider your paranoid. If you allow that feeling to
influence your behavior, so that you take elaborate precautions in
everyday tasks, any objective observer might consider you paranoid.
Are you insane? It depends. If you rob banks or you belong to a

criminal organization, the FBI most certainly means you harm. Your
perception of reality matches the true reality. The psychiatrist and the
objective observer, however, must base their conclusions on the
evidence available. They're not insane, they simply don't perceive all
the relevant facts.
Let's turn that argument around and apply it to a Mythos character. If
you learn of a new universe, where the laws of nature differ from
ours, you must redefine your notions of reality. Reality itself does not
change; only your perception of it can change. If you deny the new
reality you must become, by our definition, insane. If you accept it
you must integrate it with your previous reality, but since those
around you don't perceive it you must become, by their definition,
insane. Was that a siren? Do you hear helicopters?
We can now try to define "sanity." In the broadest sense it only means
'not insane.' We can't perceive everything at once, we must always
lack crucial information about reality, and so we can only recognize
insanity in a relative way. Cthulhu, on the other hand, perceives
things we do not. In this analysis, It is sane and we are not.
Yes, that was a helicopter. We'll take up another topic next time.
Gotta go.
Return of the Cthuvian Fragment:
Actually a couple of fragments.
From "The Likeness" by Perez: "Ia! Vthyarilops! Ut ftaghu wk'hmr
Vthyarilops! Ia! Ia!" A tattoo artist chants this phrase while applying a
monstrous design to a young woman. The finished tattoo has some
very nasty habits. "Ut," a short word, seems to seve as a key for
channeling. Compare this with "uaaah," which executes a spell.
"Ftaghu" means "skin" (or "boundary" in the case of less well-defined
creatures).
And "wk'hmr" denotes "transfer into" or "embue with."

A translation:
"Oyez! Vthyarilops! [I] call thee, [into this] skin
embue [the essence of] Vyarlithops! Oyez! Oyez!"
And from "Return to Y'ha-nthlei" by Glasby:
fhhui Y'ha-nthlei vra Dagon chtenff."

"Shtunggli grah'nn

Context doesn't help much; a boy mutters it while delirious. Later he

becomes a Deep One... but with Dagon involved, that's no stretch.
Let's start with "grah'nn," where the double ending signifies a plural.
The boy is not a Deep One yet, but he's not an ordinary human either;
this might refer to "lost ones" or "potential servants" or even "larvae."
Moving on to "shtunggli," it could mean "notify" or "contact." This
implies a very early stage of the transmogrification from human to
Deep One, when the subject first displays a sensitivity to Cthuvian
telepathy. It also implies that the Deep Ones routinely (if not
continuously) broadcast such a message as a homing beacon.
"Fhhui" actually starts the message. It probably means "consider" or
"prepare for."
Once at Y'ha-nthlei we can guess that one would "vra" ("enlist in," or
"become one with") the "chtenff" ("brotherhood" or "society") of
Dagon.
A translation: "[We] notify [our] lost brethren: prepare for [coming
to] Y'ha-nthlei [and] joining [the] Children [of] Dagon."
And another: "Calling all larvae! Visit Y'ha-nthlei! Dagon wants to
assimilate you!"
Editor's note: I'm out of fragments again. If you have any Cthuvian
passages you'd like to see "translated," please post the text and the
source. Otherwise I'll press on to Phase Two, which would have been
a Cthuvian grammar primer, but has become a Cthuvian culture
primer.
The grammar primer will have to wait for Phase Three.

Kuttner's Kthuvian Kaper:

Sorry for the delay, there's more chaos than usual here at the
Cthuvian Language Labs.
This week's fragment comes from Kuttner's "The Salem Horror:"
"Ya
na
kadishtu
nilgh'ri
stell'bsna
kn'aa
Nyogtha
k'yarnak
phlegethor."
We've established that there are no pronouns in Cthuvian. Now it
turns out that they're only assumed, as they are in Spanish, but you
can use them for emphasis, to avoid ambiguity, or even to preserve
meter. Here we have a prayer of sorts, and the speaker refers to
himself out of humility. Remember that the prefix "Y" is the first
person possessive; "Ya" is therefore the pronoun I.
"Na" I take to be a diminution of "nafl," or possibly a different dialect;
it means "not."
"Kadishtu," from the context, is "know" or "understand" (all right, I
pulled this out of my *ss).
"Nilgh'ri" can mean "anything" or "everything." The first line seems
ambiguous, but that's always a danger when you don't have the
telepathic context of the message. It could say, "I don't know
anything," or, "I don't know everything," or, "I understand nothing."
"Stell'bsna" means "ask" or "petition." Note that this differs from
"vultlagln" (beseech) which implies a boon or favor is expected, in
return for some kind of sacrifice.
"Kn'aa" obviously means "questions," and we all know Nyogtha. The
second line says, "[I] ask questions [of] Nyogtha."
Following up on this theme, "K'yarnak" means "share" or "exchange."
"Phlegethor," according to the suffix, is an aspect of some other
realm, which in this case is information. We can only postulate that
"phlegeth" refers to the dimension of pure data which we have come
to call cyberspace. So next time you're out surfing the Net, don't be

surprised to come across a whirlpool or a writhing mass of tentacles.

Here's a translation, with some attempt at a consistent meter:
"I
knew
nothing
at
all
I
petitioned
Nyogtha
Together
we
shared
our
thoughts."
Next time we'll look at Lumley's version of this same prayer.
A Lumley Cthuvian Fragment:
We've finally put out the fires here at the Cthuvian Language Labs
and hired some new scribes. You've got to be careful working with
Cthuvian, one wrong word and *poof!* Those Outer Gods can't take a
joke....
Anyway, here's a fragment from Lumley's The Burrowers Beneath.
"Ya
na
K'yarnak
Ya
hai
s'uhn-ngh

kadishtu
nilgh'ri
stell'bsna
Nyogtha,
phlegethor
l'ebumna
syha'h
n'ghft,
kadishtu
ep
r'luh-eeh
Nyogtha
eeh,
athg
li'hee
orr'e
syha'h."

The first line and a half we already did, since they're straight from
Kuttner's
"Salem
Horror:"
"I
knew
nothing
at
all
I
petitioned
Nyogtha
We
shared
our
thoughts."
As for the rest....
The prefix L means "beside," and, knowing Nyogtha, "ebumna" is
"pit." What kind of pit? "Syha'h" means "eternity;" "n'ghft" is related
to "n'gha" (death), probably "darkness."
We've already translated "Ya" as "I" and "kadishtu" as "know" or
"understand." After 'sharing thoughts' with Nyogtha, we can assume
that the writer means "I now understand."

"Ep" is a curious word. It's possible that the transcriptionist, eager to

catch every significant sound, actually caught a belch (write your own
joke). In conjunction with "hai," though, I'm guessing it means "only
now," that is, that some time has passed since the previous event and
the current event is a direct result.
"Eeh," as noted in an earlier fragment, means "answers," although the
final H may indicate some kind of voice change, or even an appositive
marker. "R'luh" means "secret" or "hidden" (note the correspondence
with "R'lyeh," which might mean "Secret City" or "Hidden Palace").
"R'luh-eeh" thus means "secret lore" or "forbidden knowledge," but in
the sense that it has been provided to one, not discovered or wrested
from its source.
"S'uhn-ngh" has that same root "ngh" (darkness), so we'll say "s'uhn"
means "agreement" or "pact." It follows that "athg" is "sign" or
"pledge;" that "li'hee" is "on pain of" or "answer with;" and that
"orr'e" is "soul" or "spirit" (contrast with 'bthnk' [body] and 'lloig'
[psyche]).
The
literal
translation:
"I
know
nothing,
[I]
petition
Nyogtha,
[We]
exchange
data
{lit.
'force
from
cyberspace'},
beside
[the]
pit
[of]
eternal
darkness,
Only now do I know the hidden lore [with which] Nyogtha responded,
[This] unholy pact [do I] sign [lest I] answer with my eternal spirit."
In

some kind of regular meter, like the original:

"I knew nothing at all, I petitioned Nyogtha,
We shared our thoughts beside the darkest pit,
I know now the dark wisdom Nyogtha imparts,
This dark pledge I seal with my immortal soul."

An aside: after studying Spencer's fragments, I'm inclined to classify

them as non-Cthuvian. For one thing, there are an awful lot of Xs, and
odd as it sounds, we haven't yet encountered this exotic letter in a
true Cthuvian fragment. Another hint is the word 'barsoom,' which
Burroughs fans will recall from his John Carter stories as the Martian
name for their planet; it's not relevant to the Mythos (as far as I
know...) so it must be considered a 'false cognate,' that is, a word

spelled the same in another language but with a different meaning.

Assorted Alien Language Fragments:
A couple of fragments in some alien language. I'm afraid to give it a
name now.
Since Mr. Russell asked so nicely, here's an invocation from his story
"Faith:
"Cthugha
fm'latgh
mnahn'
hlirgh!
Cthugha
ch'nw
hafh'drn!
Cthugha fm'latgh uh'e wfaqa!"
From the context, the speaker is attempting to summon Cthugha--or
one of Its servitors - to turn an enemy into a crispy critter. I therefore
assumed
that
it
roughly
means:
"Cthugha
burns
the
worthless
heretics!
Cthugha
passes
over
his
priest!
Cthugha burns the people I hate!"
From this, "fm'latgh" means "burns," "mnahn'" means "worthless" or
"useless," and "hlirgh" means "heretic."
We've already defined the word "ch" as "travel" or "cross over" (in
"The Unspeakable Betrothal"), so "nw" represents a person (or head)
in a very impersonal sense, e.g. counting heads. And that leaves
"hafh'drn" as "priest" or "summoner." In the last line, "uh'e" is
another word for person, but in a very personal sense; and "wfaqa" is
"hatred."
The other fragment comes from Vester's "Innsmouth Gold." It occurs
during an invocation of G'thugha, Dagon's daughter:
"Cthulhu
fhtagn
G'thugha
w'gah!
Ng'goka
y'gotha
ooboshu
R'lyeh!
Cthulhu fhtagn! Fhtagn!"
We know from the classic quote in HPL's "The Call of Cthulhu" that
"fhtagn" means "wait/sleep," although in an active way; and "wgah'n"
means "reside" or "control." The first line translates as something
like, "Cthulhu is coming--G'thugha is here!"

"Ng" is a conjunction indicating that the next action depends on the

previous action, i.e. it's a consequence. "Goka" means "grant" or
"answer;" compare this with "tharanak," which involves some kind of
exchange, like a sacrifice, for the petitioner to benefit from the
invocation; in this case it's something the invoked one was going to do
anyway. Y is "my," so "gotha" is "wish" or "longing." "Ooboshu"
means "travel," like "ch," but in the sense that one is drawn along, not
making the trip under one's own steam. The second line translates as,
"Now grant my wish, carry me to R'lyeh!"
And the last line, for emphasis, says, "Cthulhu waits [for us there]!"
Cthuvian Fragment From The Case Of Charles Dexter
Ward:
Another item from the Old Gentleman. You'd think this stuff would
get easier as you go along.
Here's the fragment from "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward," by
HPL, natch: "Y'ai 'ng'ngah, Yog-Sothoth h'ee--l'geb f'ai throdog
uaaah"
Our first spell! We already know Y means "my." "'ai" means "speak"
or "call." We know "ng" is a conjunction, "and then," repeated here
for emphasis. We know "ah" is a generic action. H, as a prefix, means
"Its." It seems logical, then, that "'ee" is a verb meaning "answers."
We know L is a prepositional prefix, "beside." "Geb" means "here," so
"l'geb" means "nearby." The prefix F is "their." That leaves "throd,"
which is "trembles." The suffix "og" adds emphasis.
So here's the translation: "I call AND THEN (emph) I perform [ritual?
gesture?], Yog-Sothoth answers--all around me cry out and
TREMBLE (emph)."
The word "uaaah" seals the spell and executes it. Presumably it calls
down a sound or psychic force which terrifies everyone around the
caster. Since Cthuvian is mostly telepathic, there are many elements
apart from the spoken words that make up this spell. You can't cast it

just by speaking the words. You have to think certain thoughts and
project them. An enterprising CoC Keeper might like to write up this
spell in game terms, assuming it doesn't already exist.
The other fragment from this story is the counterspell: "ogthrod ai'f
geb'l - ee'h Yog-Sothoth 'ngah'ng ai'y zhro."
Note that this phrase is almost exactly like the other, only backwards.
That's a typical strategy for cancelling magic--medieval witches
allegedly spoke the Lord's Prayer backwards. The final word "zhro"
seals the counterspell and executes it.
Short Alien Fragment:
For Mr. Clore, a simple little fragment from his story "The Dying
God:"sll'ha-gn'wgn-ll'ah-sgn'wahl"
He gives us a clue by saying it concludes a letter. The dashes make it
look like an idiom, a common group of words.
We've already seen the prefix "ll" (beside) and the verb "ah" (do, or
generic action). It's a reach, but we can guess that "wgn" is another
form of "wgah'n" (reside) with the active component removed, and
"gn" is the same, only shorter and less formal; it would correspond to
"home."
It makes sense that "sll'ha," then, means "invite." "Sgn'wahl" refers to
something a host and a guest do together, which could mean anything
from sharing a meal to sharing a bed.
We can roughly translate this as, "[I] invite [you to my] home; nearby
[I will] greet [you and we shall] party (?)."
Or, in the words of Mae West, "Come on up and see me sometime."
"Happiness must be earned."
--The Thief of Bagdad (1924)

Posted 13 February 2007--04:08 AM (Cyberangel wrote this. I just

collected
all
the
pieces.
Have
fun.)

NOTE: THIS COMPILATION OF SMALL ARTICLES INTO ONE

LARGER DIATRIBE ON ELDER LINGUISTICS IS PROUDLY
PRESENTED TO THE WORLD AT LARGE, THE WORLD IN
WHICH WE LIVE.
THEMATICALLY SIMILAR TO TANI
JANTSANG AND PHIL MARSH'S GROUND-BREAKING WORK OF
PSEUDO-EXO-LINGUISTICS,
R'LYEHIAN
AS
A
TOY
LANGUAGE.
I NEED A NEW COPY OF THE ORIGINAL
R'LYEHIAN... TO COMPARE THE TWO TEXTS, TO SEE
EXACTLY HOW SIMILAR THEY ARE. ALSO, SEE:
"AKLO 101" COURSES; AND OTHER SOURCES OF AKLO.
THE GIBBERISH PRODUCED BY VENGER SATANIS AT THE END
OF LIBER A:O.
YUGGOTHIC - THE PSEUDO-LANGUAGE DEVISED BY MICHAEL
AQUINO, THEN OF THE CHURCH OF SATAN, FOR USE IN LEFTHANDED LOVECRAFTIAN WORKINGS IN LAVEY'S THE SATANIC
RITUALS.
ALSO, THROWN IN AS A BONUS, IS THE MATERIAL BY JAMES
CAMPBELL, THE NUG-SOTH LEXICON, AT THE END OF HIS
EDITION OF THE NECRONOMICON!
AND ...
TOO MANY MAGICAL AND SECRET ALPHABETS TO LIST!